3 Basic Tips On PayPal Payment Integration

Originally published at opengeekslab.com on June 11, 2020

With the rise of online shopping and e-commerce sphere, the demand for payment gateways integrated into websites and mobile apps has substantially increased promoting PayPal payment integration as cogent industry leader. As payment gateway supports accepting credit card payments from clients, choosing an appropriate payment system appears among top priorities promising successful business running.

In this post, OpenGeeksLab will dwell on the peculiarities of PayPal gateway integration and give efficient tips on how to implement PayPal in website or mobile app with ease.

What is PayPal?

PayPal is an online payment system started in 1998 by Elon Musk and his partners as the enthusiast project. The idea took off resulting in 325 million active users and up to $18 billion annual revenue, accompanied by global brand awareness.

The platform functions as a mobile and web wallet allowing users to perform online transactions like online purchases or bill payments via credit/debit card or bank account. Unlike its competitors, it does not require linking user’s bank accounts to his/her online wallet, customer needs only to create a profile by entering basic personal and card data.

PayPal is widely used by individual customers and by small and mid-sized businesses as basic payment gateway type, while big influential companies apply its solutions as an additional option for customers to choose the most convenient method.

It supports several payment methods:

• Express Checkout

PayPal express checkout integration guarantees fast and easy transaction making with no setup fees. The payment is processed by the platform’s own tools, so a client is redirected from the site/application to perform transaction and returns back to finish the purchase when payment is done. Mind that PayPal express integration comes in use only if a customer already has a PayPal account.

• Direct Payment

Direct payment model enables customers without PayPal profile use its services while online purchases. Direct PayPal checkout integration allows making transaction process a part of the website/application avoiding redirection. Direct payment method claims to provide better user experience as it looks more familiar and user-friendly.

• Recurring Payment

Recurring payments are usually used for subscriptions: transactions are performed annually according to the agreed payment plan.

• Mass Payment

Mass payment model comes in use when one payment must be divided between several accounts. Mass payments represent a convenient way to pay commissions, rewards, or general payments.

Apart from PayPal, there exist varied systems that may be integrated to perform transactions in your website/app. Most popular alternatives include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Stripe, Braintree, Payoneer, TransferWise, Dwolla, etc.

The Pros and Cons of PayPal Payment Integration

Advantages

Apart from making online credit card payments an easy option for your customers, PayPal app integration offers a wide range of benefits to your business:

1. High-Level Security

PayPal strives for ensuring high-level cybersecurity to its users. It encrypts sensitive user info and stores it on separate server possessing more security protocols. That means even in case of general server breakdown it will keep customer data protected and safe. Inner security system operates numerous algorithms verifying every transaction and sends notifications for user to confirm money transfers.

2. No Fees for Personal Transactions

Unlike other money transferring services, PayPal does not charge any fees if a customer sends money to his/her friends or family members. It claims sending money to dear people who live, study, work in another city or abroad will become a pleasant gift with fast and free transaction system.

3. PCI Compliance

Undeniable benefit PayPal payment integration offers to entrepreneurs is its firm legal basis. Dealing with e-commerce one must be assured not to violate laws performing money transactions. PayPal solves the issue providing Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) compliance. Going for PayPal mobile app integration entrepreneur is assured doing things legally and cannot be afraid of incautious violations and following penalties.

4. Varied PayPal API Integration Methods

PayPal is wide-open to partnering and cooperation, offering to developers varied APIs to use during development process. It provides separate virtual testing platform — PayPal Sandbox — for development team to examine app’s/site’s productivity and performance while processing API requests and responses, without engaging real accounts and transactions.

Besides, because of the system’s immense popularity, there exist not only official instructions on how to integrate PayPal payment gateway, but also customized tutorials, manuals, community discussions, and other educational materials that will help in solution development.

5. Worldwide Reputation

PayPal stands among the most widespread payment service providers around the globe covering 200 different countries. It offers customers performing transactions in one out of 26 most spread currencies with no country binding. Over the years of excellent performance, it has gained an expert reputation and engaged more than 325 million loyal users in the first quarter of 2020. It is now cherished and adopted by the majority of e-commerce companies as the main online payment provider.

6. Customization & Convenience

PayPal cares about providing positive user experience by applying customization tools. Creating a profile, a user can easily optimize further payment operations using the autofill option, as all personal information is stored within the system itself.

7. Automized Payments

PayPal offers automatized payments function for subscription-like payment plans. If a user subscribes for a certain pricing plan it provides automatically generated recurring bills for customers not to waste time on repeating the same actions annually by themselves.

8. Adaptive Combinability

As PayPal offers a wide range of interaction methods, it is easily compatible with other e-commerce tools like shopping carts, accounting software, etc. Adaptive combinability makes PayPal API integration advantageous options comparing to less flexible competitors.

Disadvantages:

Like any other system, PayPal web integration possesses certain disadvantages to be aware of:

1. Received Payment Fee

PayPal charges users for receiving payments from customers, who buy products or services. Conducting business deals via this money transfer system, entrepreneurs must be ready to pay fees from 5 to 10 percent of the total sum.

2. Frequent User Activity Blocks

To ensure high-level cybersecurity and eliminate frauds, PayPal operates numerous algorithms checking up user activity on the platform. The algorithms mainly take hold of unusual behavior including too big transaction sum, untypical money transfers, numerous new receivers at once, etc. The actions, defined as ‘suspicious’ by security algorithms, provoke temporary bans or additional verifications to ensure user data safety.

3. Payment Delays

Another pitfall, entrepreneurs may meet, is payment delays. Depending on the transaction details PayPal may hold on money up to 21 days to eliminate possible fraud threats. Payment delays happen if relatively passive user demonstrates unusual activity, so the security system additionally checks up the transactions to prevent law violations. Besides, delays are common for certain product categories (e.g. electronics, gift cards, event tickets, etc.) which often become fraud subjects.

4. No Currency Conversion

Although PayPal operates various currencies worldwide, it does not offer currency conversion option. Customers set the preferred currency at the very beginning and cannot convert it at once. The only way is to shift the whole account via particular inquiry and official service permission.

5. Sandbox’s Autonomous Status

PayPal Sandbox represents a separate platform, which actually stands apart the main service influencing app/website-platform partnering. The separation of Sandbox imposes certain limitations on user-service interaction and slightly lowers general interaction speed because of additional checkouts and redirects. Besides, developers must always be ready to meet unexpected discrepancies and problems arising while moving the project to its final version, as operating process slightly differs.

How to Set Up a PayPal Account

PayPal offers two basic options to set up an account: for personal use and for business needs. Creating a Personal account, one must sign up by entering valid personal and bank data necessary for performing financial operations. With Personal profile, one can do online purchases via credit/debit card, receive or send money to friends and family members, and receive limited payments from sales at low fees. Besides, there are Premier accounts for personal use with no limits and wider functional scope.

Business account is designed for entrepreneurs, who conduct business online. Having Business profile, one can operate under company’s name, receive transactions from clients at low fees, and set up multi-user access. Like Premier version, Business profile offers full functional scope and sets no limits per sale transactions.

Regular Personal account can be updated not only to Premier version but also to Business one.

How to Integrate PayPal Into Website or Mobile Application

1. Get an Account

Before starting PayPal integration in iOS, Android, or website, an entrepreneur must create an account and enter basic info about company or product ensuring own legal status. Although the procedure seems routine, keep data relevant and valid, as it influences the correctness of access token, which makes your company recognized by algorithms.

2. Choose Appropriate API Model

There are several ways of PayPal API integration:

• Website Payments Standard API

Standard checkout API represents the simplest way to integrate PayPal into website. It allows transactions via credit card or PayPal profile sending payment details through POST request.

• Express Checkout

Express Checkout API allows conducting fast and easy payments via redirecting users to their PayPal profiles for transaction confirmation.

• Adaptive Payments

Adaptive Payments API allows choosing between several payment ways to find the most suitable method in every particular case.

• Payflow

Payflaw API is used while performing direct payments on your web or mobile app via user’s credit card. Payflaw API offers several development variants including Payflow Pro API (uses iframe; data entering form is provided by PayPal), Payflow Link API (similar to previous one), and Payflow API namely (data entering form is provided by your site/application).

• Mass Pay

Mass Pay API is applied to unite several payments into one transaction. Mind that Mass Pay API is available only in case the customer has a PayPal profile.

3. Create a Sandbox Account

Sandbox allows development team to test how product works after PayPal integration in Android, iOS, or site. With Sandbox profile, one can observe the app’s progress, track metrics, or experience imitated chargebacks, complaints, and transaction delays/denying within virtual testing environment.

Do Not Lose Your Chance!

Implementing payment system into your website or mobile app paves the way of keeping business successful on modern market. PayPal payment integration stands among the most popular options chosen by e-commerce entrepreneurs and development companies.

If you are interested in integrating PayPal (or any other payment gateway) into your mobile or web app, do not hesitate to contact us. Our company is wide-open to support you in creating solutions that will bring you success.